Struggles and Triumphs by P.T. Barnum — Read

My Clerkship in Brooklyn -- Uneasiness and Dissatisfaction -- The Small Pox -- Going Home to Recruit -- "Chairy" Hallett Again -- Back to Brooklyn -- Opening a Porterhouse -- Selling Out -- My Clerkship in New York -- My Habits -- Observance of Sunday -- In Bethel Once More -- Beginning Business on My Own Account -- Opening Day -- Large Sales and Great Profits -- The Lottery Business -- Views Thereon -- About a Pocketbook -- Wits and Wags -- Swearing Out a Fine -- First Appearance at the Bar -- Securing "Arabian" -- A Model Love-Letter.

Mr. Oliver Taylor removed from Danbury to Brooklyn, Long Island, where he kept a grocery store and also had a large comb factory and a comb store in New York. In the fall of 1826 he offered me a situation as clerk in his Brooklyn store, and I accepted it. I soon became conversant with the routine of my employer's business and before long he entrusted to me the purchasing of all goods for his store. I bought for cash entirely, going into the lower part of New York City in search of the cheapest market for groceries, often attending auctions of teas, sugars, molasses, etc., watching the sales, noting prices and buyers, and frequently combining with other grocers to bid off large lots, which we subsequently divided, giving each of us the quantity wanted at a lower rate than if the goods had passed into other hands, compelling us to pay another profit.